IMPHAL, June 12: The Sericulture department has completed the recruitment process of 170 staffs in different categories which will solve the lack of manpower enabling the department to provide help to farmers.
Speaking as the chief guest in the inaugural function of a five-day beneficiary empowerment training programme under Bivoltine cluster promotion programme of Ukhrul district at Youth Hostel, Khuman Lampak, H Ginjamang Simte said that the recruitment process was conducted under the guidance of Sericulture minister Govindas Konthoujam and the result will be announced shortly.
Further mentioning that Manipur is the largest producer of Oak Tussar Silk in India and the second largest mulberry silk producing state in North East India, he said: “ The raw silk production in the state was not as per targeted. It is due to the fact that the fund earmarked in the plan budget was cut down by rupees 150 lakhs and an earmarked fund of rupees 500 lakhs for EAP was also not released by the planning department. Beside, the target of raw silk under NERTPS was not achieved as the ministry didn’t release any funds till the end of March this year.”
“We have to get a lion’s share of NERTPS fund based on the performance of Manipur Sericulture Project Phase-I financed by JICA. The target of raw silk production under MSP-I is 85 metric tons but we could achieve only 63.75 MT as confirmed by the CSB scientist on the evaluation of the programme of implementation,” Ginjamang said.
He said that the department is outsourcing funds from other departments in order to increase the production of silk in Manipur through RKKY implementation, vermin compose culture etc, adding that they are trying to get funds from NREGA scheme which submitted DPR for 50 crore under rural development and Panchayat Raj.
The proposal letter was submitted to the administrative department for approval of the delayed funds for 2013-14 and 2014-15, he continued.
Meanwhile, Dr L Somen Singh, a scientist with E Research Extension Centre said that Manipur got two Bivoltine clusters in Ukhrul and Churachandpur among the eight clusters selected by the Central Silk Board for Northeast region.
“The training will be conducted in eight batches with each batch having 20 trainees each.
Other North eastern states like Assam have three clusters while Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura have one cluster each. The production of silk is less comparing to other states. It was due to the slow work by the cluster so we conduct such training. This training will discuss the basics of plantation of oak trees, rearing of cocoons etc,” he added.